Washtenaw County, home to the University of Michigan, has given initial approval to a new set of immigration policies that welcome all migrants, whether legal or illegal, criminal or law abiding.

Part of the package includes taxpayer-funded legal aid for illegals facing deportation.

Washtenaw and its main city of Ann Arbor are already sanctuary jurisdictions, but now they are expanding and codifying their policies that give all sorts of favorable treatment to refugees and immigrants, regardless of legal status.

The main impetus, according to a local newspaper, is to publicly show opposition to President Trump.

“As an act of resistance to President Donald Trump’s agenda and in solidarity with the county’s immigrant community, the County Board of Commissioners voted 5-2 at its Ways and Means Committee meeting Wednesday night, May 3, to give initial approval to new immigration policies,” reports Mlive.com.

Washtenaw County commissioners OK’d three resolutions Wednesday that appear destined for final approval on May 17. One asserts the county’s support for the immigrant community, another affirms the county as “a welcoming community that respects the innate dignity of all people” and the final resolution bans any county public servant from inquiring about a person’s immigration status.

There is also a plan being devised to use taxpayer money to fund programs that aid legal and illegal immigrants, including those facing deportation. Ostensibly, some of the aid would include free legal help.

Washtenaw commissioners decided against including specific dollar amounts in the resolutions, Mlive reports, though a memo accompanying the package states the board’s actions would result in appropriations of about $135,200 from the general fund’s cash reserves.

Washtenaw County’s pending resolutions are similar to those adopted recently by the city of Ann Arbor, which is the largest city in the county. Its pro-illegal immigration stance comes on the heels of an announcement last week by Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for governor of Michigan who, if elected, said he would declare Michigan a “sanctuary state.”

El-Sayed would also be the nation’s first Muslim governor if elected in 2018. He is the former health director for the city of Detroit and graduated from University of Michigan, serving during his time on campus as the president of the Muslim Student Association. The MSA is a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood, as documented by the FBI in evidence presented at the terror-financing trial prosecuted in 2008 against the Holy Land Foundation.

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed with wife Sarah.

There are more than 300 sanctuary cities and counties now operating in the U.S., following the dictates of the United Nations’ New Urban Agenda, which is the implementation plan for the U.N. 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The document incorporates for the first time the rights of migrants into U.N.’s 17-point plan for global development, which was adopted by 193 heads of state, including President Obama and Pope Francis, at the U.N. in New York in September 2015.

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, said the Washtenaw County Commission’s resolutions will have little effect in stopping deportations by ICE.

“On the one hand, these are somewhat frivolous, feel-good sanctuary resolutions that will not interfere with immigration enforcement. Apparently the county commissioners don’t have the guts to do that, which works out better for the community in this case,” Vaughan told WND in an email.

“On the other hand, they are planning to spend a fair amount of taxpayer money on programs that assist illegal aliens, provide them services and benefits, and even give them legal representation to fight their deportation,” she added.

“Is Washtenaw County so well off, without unemployed or needy citizens and legal immigrants, to help? It’s a shame the commissioners don’t show the same impulses to help the Americans and legal immigrants who are displaced and disadvantaged by illegal immigration. Programs like this, to provide services and legal representation to illegal aliens, are just a gravy train for the many groups that oppose immigration enforcement and make a living off taxpayers by providing these services that induce illegal residents to stay here instead of return home.”

Washtenaw and Ann Arbor are not the first jurisdictions to take the next step and go “beyond sanctuary” status.

Secure Michigan, an organization that promotes legal immigration and serves as a voice in Michigan against the principles of Shariah law, issued the following statement to WND Thursday:

The fundamental transformation of Michigan just took another leap forward. Washtenaw County and the City of Ann Arbor have joined jurisdictions like Austin Texas where federal law is deliberately violated to pursue the UN’s progressive agenda of redistributing wealth by redistributing people.

The people of Texas will not tolerate that and their representatives have just passed legislation that will impose offending officials in Austin with jail time. The Texas Governor has taken a leadership position to this issue.

Why is there silence from the Michigan Governor and Attorney General? Are they in agreement with the announced candidate for governor of Michigan who wants to make the entire state a “sanctuary state”? Does candidate Abdul El-Sayed see the legal pluralism of rejecting federal law and weakening the application of the U.S. Constitution as an opening for introducing yet another legal system to which he is committed, namely Shariah?